{"id":4463,"date":"2022-06-11T13:28:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-11T12:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/?p=4463"},"modified":"2022-06-30T09:25:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T08:25:49","slug":"how-disability-pay-gaps-can-be-misleading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/how-disability-pay-gaps-can-be-misleading\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay Gaps #27 – Don’t mention the Disability Pay Gap!"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it!<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Basil Fawlty didn’t get away with it in Torquay and neither did this manager.<\/p>\n

HR Manager<\/strong> – “Our disability pay gap is zero which surprises me<\/em><\/span>”<\/p>\n

Me<\/strong> – “How many disabled employees do you have?<\/em><\/span>”<\/p>\n

My response sums up my view on Disability Pay Gap Reporting (DPGR<\/strong>).\u00a0 The manager commented on their pay gap<\/strong> whilst I queried their employment gap<\/strong>.\u00a0 As a statistician who happens to be disabled, I consider the conventional disability pay gap statistic to be at best irrelevant and at worse a lie.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

When I say the difference between the hourly pay of the median (or average) disabled employee and the hourly pay of the median (or average) abled bodied employee could be a lie, I am invoking the sentiment expressed by Bill James, the father of Sabermetrics<\/a>, the name given to the analysis of baseball statistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statistics were not merely inadequate: they lied. And the lies they told led the people that ran baseball to misjudge their players and mismanage their games\u201d, The Bill James Baseball Abstract 1977<\/i><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

More than any other protected characteristic, the term Pay Gap<\/strong> has to be crushed into oblivion and replaced with the more accurate term Representation Gap<\/strong> when talking about disability.\u00a0 Once this change is made, then we can start to talk about DRGR<\/strong> (Disability Representation Gap Reporting) instead of DPGR<\/strong>.\u00a0 This article explains why and finishes by pointing out the government already has a reporting scheme in place that could become full fledged DRGR with a few tweaks.<\/p>\n

The UK Disability Employment Gap<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Unlike other blog posts I’ve written, this one combines my professional opinion as a statistician with my personal experience as a disabled person who had to overcome barriers in order to continue a career.\u00a0 The employment gap is very real to me and I want to digress briefly to talk about my disability before continuing.<\/p>\n

My deafblindness<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n

I have Usher Syndrome<\/a><\/strong>, a recessive genetic condition<\/a> which combines deafness since birth and progressive blindness since adolescence.\u00a0 \"\"I was diagnosed with this in my late 20s, though I was aware of having issues before then.\u00a0 I was registered blind a few years later.<\/p>\n

Specifically, I have Usher Type 2A<\/a> which means my sight and hearing issues are –<\/p>\n